The armed Free Syrian Army rebels have gathered for a show of strength in Syria's al-Hasaka province near the Turkish border claiming they had beaten back Kurdish fighters from the city though the claim could not be confirmed.\n\n\n\nKurdish and Arab groups cooperated to oust Syrian regime forces from the area earlier this month but have since clashed over its control.\n\n\n\nWhen government forces withdrew from Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria in July they were replaced by Kurdish PKK fighters who would then battle rebels when they pushed themselves into predominately Kurdish areas. The PKK are fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast region of Turkey.\n\n\n\nMeanwhile in Iraq relations between ethnic Kurds and the central government led by Shiite Muslims have also deteriorated with Kurdish fighters involved in a standoff with the Iraqi army over an area to which both claim jurisdiction. The long-running feud over land and oil rights is currently testing Iraq's federal stability a year after US troops left the country.